Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Join us at lunchtime to hear fiction finalists, Gigi Fenster
and Emily Perkins, and winner of the NZSA Hubert Church First Bookfor Fiction award, Lawrence Patchett in
discussion with FergusBarrowman of VUP.

Lucky old Nelson – most
sunshine in the country and the best bookshop. Page and Blackmore just
reclaimed this title in time for the Readers and Writers’ line up they sponsor
each year as part of the Nelson Arts Festival (Oct 11-28 2013).

This year’s programme
features Lloyd Jones new memoir A History of Silence, Rosemary McLeod’s With Bold Needle and Thread (on sewing and social
change), Kate de Goldi reading to children, young adult writer Karen Healey in
discussion with a teen panel on her dystopian look into the future When We Wake, Sir Alan Mark’s book on alpine plants, a new
Craig Potton Publishing book on 25 years of WearableArt, poetry with Bill
Manhire on the lawn at Woollaston Vineyards and quite a lot more.

A feature of this festival
is its dynamic Thinking Brunches – panel discussions in the Granary Festival
café at historic Founders Park. This year visiting writers and a few bold
locals will debate climate change in the first of these; while the second looks
into the arts and how they should be funded, with the line up including the
Minister of Arts & Culture, Hon Chris Finlayson.

The Nelson Arts Festival
runs from October 11-28. The 14 Page & Blackmore Readers and Writers’ sessions
are clustered in the three weekends of the festival.

RUNNING THE COUNTRY

A look inside New Zealand’s government

Maria Gill with Illustrations by Malcolm Evans

Maria Gill invites younger readers to discover how
New Zealand is run and why it is necessary to have laws. Children will learn
about how the government implements decisions about what is best for the
country, and how to accommodate people who have differing views.

In simple accessible
language and employing fact boxes, statistics, photos and engaging cartoons
(by leading cartoonist Malcolm Evans), the book features who’s who in central
government, such as the governor-general, prime minister, cabinet and MPs,
and then judges, the police force and local government too.

There are also spreads
devoted to the New Zealand currency, citizenship, and the role of the media,
with a strong section on voting and the electoral system to encourage
children about the importance of their future vote.

Age range - 8-14 years.

Maria Gill has written over 20 non-fiction children’s books for
the book trade and educational markets.She regularly visits schools and libraries around the country
promoting New Zealand books. She has published five titles with New Holland
including New Zealand Hall of Fame
(Children's Choice Non-fiction category winner at the New Zealand Post
Children's Book Awards 2012) The Call
of the Kokako (a Storylines Notable Book in 2012) and Eruption! Discovering New Zealand
volcanoes (LIANZA Children’s Book Awards 2013 finalist and Storylines
Notable Book in 2013).

Malcolm Evans has been a professional cartoonist since the 60s,
working for newspapers both here and in England. He has twice been judged NZ cartoonist of
the year and his work appears daily in three major New Zealand newspapers,
The Manawatu Standard, The Timaru Herald and The Christchurch Press.

FESTIVAL
TO CO-HOST MAJOR SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES

Leading international
scientists, Craig Stanford, Paul Ehrlich and Steve Jones, will speak in
Auckland in the coming months in a major science lecture series presented by
the Festival in partnership with the Allan Wilson Centre and the Auckland
Museum Institute. All Festival Patrons and Friends will be eligible for a
33% discount on tickets to these premiere events.

The series comprises:

Planet
Without Apes Craig Stanford

Friday 30 August, 6.15 PM, Auckland Museum

Avoiding
Global Collapse Paul Ehrlich

Tuesday 29 October, 6.15 PM, Auckland Museum

Nature,
Nuture or Neither Steve Jones

Monday 18 November, 6.15 PM, Auckland Museum

Leading primatologist, Craig
Stanford, Professor of Biological Sciences & Anthropology
and Co-Director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at the University of
Southern California, asks if we can live with the consequences of wiping our
closest living relatives off the face of the Earth?

Paul Ehrlich
believes a combination of cultural and genetic evolution has taken us to the
brink and questions whether we can evolve our way out of it? A renowned
ecologist, Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford
University, and will discuss Allan Wilson’s on-going legacy in establishing
humanity’s place in the natural world, including understanding how cultural
evolution is influencing how we change the world and its life-support systems.

Steve Jones
is a University College London geneticist and popular science writer who looks
at the impact of environment on our big obsessions: obesity, IQ, the
education system and sporting ability and discusses how we cannot just blame
our genes for poor outcomes.

Tickets are $15 ($10 for Festival Patrons and Friends, Museum Institute members
and students) available here for Planet
Without Apes. Tickets for the other lectures will be
available approximately four weeks prior to the lecture dates.

Join as a Friend of the Festival for just $70 annually to receive front row
seating at the Festival, discounts on off-season events and priority booking
for Festival tickets before the public on-sale date. Joining is easy -
phone 3768074 or e-mail info@writersfestival.co.nz

Book industry has
“taken a pretty serious hammering in the last five years” says Sandy Grant

“Nothing like a discussion about Copyright to keep you awake after an AGM,”
joked Sandy Grant, guest speaker at the PANZ AGM on 18 July at Old Government
House in Auckland. He went on to talk a bit about the copyright environment,
then the state of the trade overall.

Sandy, CEO of Hardie Grant Publishing, an independent Melbourne-based publisher
that publishes books and magazines and employs around 150 people, said he was
talking with two hats – one as publisher and the other as Chairman of
Australia’s collective licensing agency – the Copyright Agency.

His insights, shared with an attentive audience, evoked dismay at the book
industry’s current doldrums:

I find that the trajectory of my working life, that has seen a steady rise in
publishing output and a steady rise in income for every part of the book
industry supply chain for 35 years, has taken a pretty serious hammering in the
last five. Part of that is the relentless dog eat dog economic environment
started in the GFC – and that has never recovered, but the other more profound
influence is the transition to digital delivery of content. I was hoping to
retire happily and hand the business to my son – now I am scrapping for sales
and he is working at a digital agency making good money.

From the outside NZ looks to be suffering as much or perhaps even more than
anyone else from both problems.

What we are seeing is a hunger for change driven by technology businesses and
the consumer and both have shown little or no interest in the niceties of our
business.
I remember years ago being told if your business is going to be cannibalised
you should do it yourself. But we didn’t do it and cannibals got to us first.

Working as a nanny doesn’t leave much time for casual reading, but it’s important for caregivers to provide themselves with a bit of intellectual stimulation whenever possible. Spending the majority of your day reading picture books and entertaining kids may be fun, but it’s also a bit draining to never have any adult interaction. When spending time with other adults isn’t quite feasible, curling up with a good book can be a close second. These are ten of the best nanny-themed novels for summer reading for nannies who like to identify with their books’ protagonists.

The Nanny Diaries – Few works of fiction have inspired the level of controversy among nannies and their employers as Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’s bestselling novel The Nanny Diaries. Spawning a major motion picture, a sequel and a novella or two, this is one depiction of a harrowing nanny/employer relationship that was written by two industry insiders.

Malibu Nanny – If real-world celebrity expose is more to your taste than fiction, the chronicles of the former Kardashian family nanny might be the book for you. Packed with salacious rumors and more than a few hints of scandal, Malibu Nanny is the tale of a self-proclaimed small-town girl turned celebrity nanny.

Nanny Returns – The follow-up to the wildly popular novel The Nanny Diaries, Nanny Returns brings readers back into the world of Nan and the X family as the titular character explores her own feelings about the family she left behind while fighting, once again, for the wellbeing of her now-teenaged charge.

A Spoonful of Sugar – The memoir of a woman called a “real-life Mary Poppins,” A Spoonful of Sugar is the tale of Britain’s oldest living nanny, and chronicles her adventures in caring for other people’s children.

The Good Nanny – Billed as a black comedy and set in the sometimes-tumultuous world of professional childcare, The Good Nanny is a story about finding a perfect nanny, and the frustration that can accompany that highly sought-after perfection.

A few weeks ago, we rounded up our favorite books of 2013 so far, but these aren’t necessarily the books that have been the most discussed.So here’s a quick rundown of the ten new books that, from my vantage point, have gotten the most buzz as we head toward the back half of 2013. This isn’t a scientific effort; there’s really no data to be had. Well, maybe there is, but Amazon/Google keep it in an underground locker with the Kindle sales data and the secret SEO tricks.In alphabetical order:

1. All That Is by James Salter

The first new novel in thirty years from a living literary legend? And it’s damn good? I’ve been thrilled to see a bunch of new passengers aboard the James Salter train this year. This is kind of an old-school, mid-century novel, and if it is the last Salter we get, man what an endcap on a dazzling career. If you haven’t read Salter before, this is a good example of what he does best: the sentences, kid, the sentences.

2. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

If All That Is represents the twilight of Salter’s literary era, Americanah represents the literary world we live in today. A funny, complicated, and resonant novel, it captures something that feels true about America as it is right this moment. Adichie reminds us that the most vital, difficult, and American stories have been, and still are, the stories of race and immigration, of being new in a country that for centuries has thought of itself as the New World. It’s the kind of work that feels important, while being a joy to read. I’d say watch for it in award season, but even that feels sort of small compared to what this novel does.

3. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)

A new J.K. Rowling novel would have been enough. But a new J.K. Rowling that is already out and published under a pseudonym with sudden, shocking reveal? Buzz gold. Rowling’s little experiment in anonymity turned into a larger scale experiment about literary celebrity. The book was positively, but not widely, reviewed and apparently only sold about 1500 copies before the big reveal. That number is likely to change…by several orders of magnitude. Fascinating stuff.

4. Inferno by Dan Brown

It’s a new Dan Brown novel. It’s almost exactly what you’d expect. A little less church-stuff, a little more literary stuff. If you like Dan Brown, you are going to like Inferno. It’s silly and implausible, but it’s also fun. Don’t ask why a criminal mastermind would leave a modified artistic masterwork behind filled with clues literally only one man in the world could figure out. Don’t question the sci-fi level technical and biological engineering that is supposed to exist in this world. Just sit back and let Robert Langdon tell you about murals and hidden passageways and recite entire passages from Dante on demand. And as only Dan Brown can do, Inferno unleashed the seething literary snobbery of those who find him and his success unbearable (which is almost as fun as the book).

5. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

The mid-year award for the book that started the most online flame wars goes to Lean In. Heck, I’ve even added the phrase “having it all” to my list of things never to talk to anyone about, ever. I’d say something more about what Sandberg has to say about women and work, but I am just going to let the 2342345 other articles, essays, and response posts do the heavy lifting. Sandberg’s arguments in Lean In were probably enough on their own to get tongues a-wagging, but her position as COO of Facebook, the social network everybody loves to hate, made the book seem somehow a book of the moment even beyond its actual content.The rest at Book Riot

Headline is to publish David Beckham's "stunningly illustrated and very personal celebration of his playing days" in time for Christmas.
The publisher is promising to orchestrate a global campaign for the as-yet-untitled volume, which will include "exclusive photography and text", and be published on 31st October, with Beckham confirmed to promote. Non-fiction publishing director Jonathan Taylor bought world rights in a deal with Beckham's management company XIX Entertainment.

Beckham brought the curtain down on his stellar 20-year playing career in May this year, having captained his own country on 58 occasions, and worn the shirt of Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, winning League titles in four separate nations.

Taylor said: "David Beckham is, without a doubt, the most universally recognised and popular sports person on the planet, and this gorgeous book will be a superb way for his millions of fans around the world to celebrate David's remarkable achievements within football. The entire team at Headline is wholeheartedly committed to the project's international success."

Headline UK and international sales director Barbara Ronan vowed the publisher was ready to make the book "a global bestseller as we celebrate Beckham's historic 20-year career in football".

The book will be published in hardback and e-book, with price still to be confirmed.
Previous autobiographical books have included David Beckham: My Side (Collins Willow, 2003) and David Beckham: My World (Hodder, 2000).

Polish translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones has been announced as the winner of the 2012 Found in Translation Award. The prize is usually given to the translator of the best work of translation of a single book from Polish into English, but the judges decided that Lloyd-Jones should be given the prize for the entirety of her 2012 output.

Lloyd-Jones previously won the prize in 2008 for her work on Huwelle's The Last Supper (Serpent's Tail). She said: "Not much [Polish literature] gets translated into English, and with only 30,000 books published a year in Poland compared with up to ten times as many in the UK, it’s hard for Polish literature to break through the competition. But since the removal of the straitjacket of censorship, Polish literature has finally had the chance to play the healthy role that literature can play, allowing a society to express its experiences and come to understand them." Lloyd-Jones wins 10,000 PLN (£2,040) funded by WAB Publishers, which will be presented during a night of readings at the London Review Bookshop on 15th November.

The author shares her favourite stations to journey to and through.

This tiny station is a joyful open sesame. You step out beside the gorgeous
and unbelievably long Salts Mill, built in the Italianate style by Sir Titus
Salt, the great Bradford mill owner. The abandoned structure was transformed by
Jonathan Silver in 1987 into cool, spacious galleries of art, books, textiles,
design and more. London St Pancras

You couldn’t leave out this “cathedral of railways”. The trains look fabulous
against the brickwork and intricate wrought iron and under William Barlow’s
astonishing single span roof. Gawp at Paul Day’s 30ft-high The Meeting Place and
enjoy watching frazzled travellers apologising to the almost life-size bronze of
Sir John Betjeman as they rush past.

East Midlands Parkway

You must look up when you get to this new, sleek, strangely shadowy building.
On one side there’s open space, but on the other soar the eight massive cooling
towers of Ratcliffe on Soar’s power station. The ticket seller – the world’s
loneliest – claims the place is often very busy, but I’ve never seen that. Hebden Bridge This lovely fin-de-siècle station was restored without being ruined in 1997.
There are flower tubs, old-fashioned signs and a single line that leads in both
directions to wooded valleys – magical in the snow. Hop off and take the
relaxing five-minute walk through a park and along the river to the centre of
Hebden Bridge. York The majestic curved hall isn’t as airy as St Pancras, but the golden stone is
handsome. A walkway leads to the old Motive Power Depot where three halls now
house the National Railway Museum. This is a joy – bridges, turntables and God
knows how many trains. It’s free, and a child can leave clutching something from
the cheap and merry gift shop. Anne Fine’s new book for young teenagers is 'Blood Family’,
published by Doubleday Children’s BooksAnne was talking to Iona McLaren

Today in Chattanooga, TN, President Obama will visit a two-year-old Amazon fulfillment center to outline his “better bargain for the middle class.” He will use the company that hosted him as an example of how our country might start working again, no doubt mentioning the 5000 new jobs that Amazon will be adding to demonstrate how the economy is supposedly on the upswing in the USA. This has caused a few friends of mine who work in various corners of the publishing industry, from editors at big publishing houses to indie booksellers, to voice their unease about the president palling around with a company that the publishing world considers the real-life equivalent of Star Wars‘ Galactic Empire. Even though there’s nothing more American than the go-getter capitalist spirit that promotes competition in order to give the American public what they want at a price they can afford, Amazon routinely engages in behavior that book people see as bad business, and bad for business. Check out the most recent round of prices slashed almost literally in half, on some of the biggest bestsellers of the last year. … Read More

Following a scheduled 25-minute tour of the packing floor of a one-million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment warehouse in Chattanooga, Tenn., President Obama will make a speech at 2 pm EST that the White House press office describes as “the first in a series of policy speeches” that the Obama administration is calling “a better bargain for the middle class.” Obama’s speech today during his scheduled 90-minute stop at Amazon’s warehouse will focus, the White House says, on his proposals to “jumpstart” private sector job growth and to strengthen the manufacturing sector through a combination of corporate tax cuts and investment in job creation programs. He will also propose measures to prevent corporate tax evasion.

As Obama prepares to leave the White House at 10:45 am EST this morning for the flight on Air Force One to Chattanooga, controversy continues to swirl among the nation’s independent booksellers concerning the president’s scheduled visit to Amazon’s Chattanooga facility, which employs 1,700 workers. While starting salaries for “fulfillment associates” at Amazon’s Chattanooga warehouse could not be confirmed, a job listing posted today on Amazon.com advertised $11/hour starting salaries plus benefits for full-time workers in the company’s Murfreesboro, Tenn. fulfillment warehouse, 100 miles distant.

To date, the American Booksellers Association and two regional booksellers associations, the New England Independent Booksellers Association and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, have weighed in on the matter with letters sent to the White House.